4 replies to this topic

[Frontman]

Hi!

Currently, we are developing an online store in a highly-competitive area, and we primarily focus on developing useful, interesting and informative content.
BUT we immediately stumbled upon the following two SEO-related questions:

1. Should we keep all those articles:
1.a Everything - in a blog only?
1.b "As usual": we create a section called "Product guides", inside we create sub-sections like "Tips & Hints", "How to", "Expert advice", and place articles there?
1.c Combine: publish some articles - in a simple structure like point "1.b", and some - in the blog?

2. What is the strategy of interlinking articles with the product- and category pages?
Blindly choose most profitable product (or a category), write smth. useful related to it (with links leading to that product/category) and publish this article at our site?


Please, share your opinions! This is VERY URGENT for us!


Thank you!
F.

[copywriter]

Let me just be sure I'm following your questions. You're strictly talking about articles here, correct? Not category pages or individual product copy, right?

1. Should we keep all those articles:
1.a Everything - in a blog only?

1.b "As usual": we create a section called "Product guides", inside we create sub-sections like "Tips & Hints", "How to", "Expert advice", and place articles there?

1.c Combine: publish some articles - in a simple structure like point "1.b", and some - in the blog?

While there are pros and cons to all and no "right" answers, I'd probably go with the blog. They offer the ability to generate user feedback and interaction plus they typically get ranked and shared faster than standard HTML/PHP web pages. You can tweet the posts then put a Twitter feed on your category/product pages if you want.


2. What is the strategy of interlinking articles with the product- and category pages?
Blindly choose most profitable product (or a category), write smth. useful related to it (with links leading to that product/category) and publish this article at our site?

Yes, put them on your site, but even more importantly, distribute them so they have a chance of being picked up by other quality sites. While distributing them to article directories doesn't do a lot in and of itself, once your articles get picked up by other sites, it boosts your link pop and also introduces you to new audiences.

[Frontman]

Thank you for the reply!

Let me just be sure I'm following your questions. You're strictly talking about articles here, correct? Not category pages or individual product copy, right?

Correct. I'm talking about some additional information.
In fact, we may need proper copywriting in some future: for categories and, probably, for products themselves. But there are more than 2000 products, so everything depends on the copywriters' prices....

[Michael Martinez]

Where you publish the content really doesn't matter as long as you have sufficient cross-linking between content and products to make it easy for the visitor to get around the site. You don't want to link to a feature article "How to use your Mighty Widget Extender DX7!" from the Widget Extender DX7 product page unless they can easily get back there (or add it to the shopping cart) from the feature article.

There should be as many 2-way 1-click pathways between products and articles as possible.

[Frontman]

Where you publish the content really doesn't matter as long as you have sufficient cross-linking between content and products to make it easy for the visitor to get around the site. You don't want to link to a feature article "How to use your Mighty Widget Extender DX7!" from the Widget Extender DX7 product page unless they can easily get back there (or add it to the shopping cart) from the feature article.

There should be as many 2-way 1-click pathways between products and articles as possible.

Thank you!!